Little Shop Of Horrors

~~In Mr. Musnik’s run-down flower shop on New York’s Skid Row, where the residents are downbeat, dejected and struggling to make ends meet, works Seymour, a kind and timid employee, who discovers a strange and unusual plant which he names Audrey 11 in honor of his co-worker who he is in love with. The Plant becomes a popular attraction and brings him, and the flower shop, fame and fortune. Little does he know that the plant will develop a soulful R&B voice with an insatiable thirst for human blood and is bent on world-domination. Connor Brown was convincing as Seymour capturing the naivety and much put-upon traits whilst bringing out his endearing and well-meaning attributes. His acting skills are stronger than those of his singing but the duet ‘Suddenly Seymour’ with Audrey was commendable. Charlotte Blunt was delightful as bleached-blond Audrey. She brought out the hopelessness and lack of self esteem of the character and the subservience to Orin, her boyfriend, perfectly. Her singing too was superb and she sang one of my favourite songs ‘Somewhere That’s Green’ with such feeling, it was just exquisite. Joe Baguley, a small 10 year old, played Mr. Mushnik. Whilst his size didn’t sit too well with me I must say that his performance was praiseworthy and to remember all those lines was a tremendous achievement. Daniel Beard was suitably sadistic as the black leather, motor-cyclist, tough-guy boyfriend of Audrey, Orin Scrivello. His singing of ‘Dentist’ was great and his liking for nitrous oxide proved to be his undoing as he struggled and squirmed about trying to take off his ‘mask’ - not an easy thing to portray, but he did it admirably. I loved Cora Maxfield (Chiffon), Chloe Hughes (Ronnette) and Katie Watkins (Crystal) along with Madeleine Sutton and Grace Randall as the “doo-wop” chorus girls who splendidly sing songs in their own right and also act as backing singers. They were extremely elegant in their various outfits with hairstyles and stylised movements reminiscent of the sixties. Obviously you cannot perform this show without ‘the plants’ and what exceptional ones they were, from the small glove puppet with a flair for ‘touching’ the ladies through the various stages of growth till we reach the enormous man-eating giant of a plant with a terrific voice, supplied by Callum Priest, demanding to be fed. The sets, props, lighting and sound were all of a high standard and the thirty children of the chorus together with the principal cast excelled in this challenging production. Congratulations to the great team at Bolsover especially to the production team for this Youth Section show for all their hard work in encouraging and supporting, hopefully, the stars of tomorrow.

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